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Waste comes in many different forms and may be categorized in a variety of ways. The types listed here are not necessarily exclusive and there may be considerable overlap so that one waste entity may fall into one to many types.
Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. " Garbage " can also refer specifically to food waste , as in a garbage disposal ; the two are sometimes collected separately.
Landfill gas is a mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill as they decompose organic waste, including for example, food waste and paper waste. Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane, with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide.
A waste product may become a by-product, joint product or resource through an invention that raises a waste product's value above zero. Examples include municipal solid waste (household trash/refuse), hazardous waste, wastewater (such as sewage, which contains bodily wastes (feces and urine) and surface runoff), radioactive waste, and others.
Incineration is a disposal method in which solid organic wastes are subjected to combustion so as to convert them into residue and gaseous products. This method is useful for the disposal of both municipal solid waste and solid residue from wastewater treatment. This process reduces the volume of solid waste by 80 to 95 percent. [42]
The first federal legislation addressing solid waste management was the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965 (SWDA) [1] that created a national office of solid waste. By the mid-1970s, all states had some type of solid waste management regulations.
Industrial waste may be solid, semi-solid or liquid in form. It may be hazardous waste (some types of which are toxic ) or non-hazardous waste. Industrial waste may pollute the nearby soil or adjacent water bodies, and can contaminate groundwater, lakes, streams, rivers or coastal waters. [ 1 ]
The treatment of solid wastes is a key component of waste management. Different forms of solid waste treatment are graded in the waste hierarchy . Waste water treatment